A magical journey of a sharp-tongued woman and a goofy man

Jiang Ye's shadow suddenly froze at the tip of Ye Shuli's boot.

The two looked up at the entrance to the settlement, where three floating psionic searchlights were casting pale beams of light across their clothes, which were stained with void crystals.

"Welcome back to the live-action Werewolf game." Jiang Ye used his dagger to pry away the purple moss stuck to the collar of his tactical uniform. The plants from the void were visibly fading to gray-white. "I bet five spirit crystals that someone will come to check your records in ten minutes."

Ye Shuli's jade pendant suddenly emitted a soft chime.

The newly added red coordinates on the holographic map are flashing beneath their feet, while the original "abandoned" marker has been replaced with the seal script "under observation".

She grabbed Jiang Ye's forearm with her other hand, and her keen sense of smell, cultivated in the modern chemical laboratory, detected hostile elements in the crowd—at least three Spirit Master-level auras were moving toward them.

"Take care of the wounds first." Ye Shuli pulled Jiang Ye and rushed into the safe house.

The blood sample from last week, preserved in the glass jar, confirmed her suspicions: Jiang Ye's blood transparency was 12% higher than the standard value, a precursor to the erosion of meridians by void energy.

As she pushed the syringe into the other person's vein, a mocking sound, accompanied by an electric shock, suddenly erupted outside the window.

"I heard someone stole and ate the Void Forbidden Fruit?" The red-clad female cultivator floated to the window on a levitation array, her fingernail-sized detection device pointed directly at the bandage on Jiang Ye's neck. "Do you need me to teach you how to spit it out?"

Jiang Ye suddenly pulled the syringe out, causing two drops of blood to splatter out.

The moment the platinum-gold blood touched the female cultivator's array plate, it corroded the spiritual patterns on the surface of the magical artifact, creating fine holes.

Ye Shuli grabbed a petri dish from the workbench and caught the falling blood droplets. The microbial culture technology from the modern hospital allowed her to complete the test instantly: "I suggest you change to a set of anti-radiation equipment."

The alarms at the gathering place suddenly went off.

All the green markers on the holographic map lit up again, and the newly added red coordinates perfectly matched the latitude and longitude of Ye Shuli's jade pendant.

As the six Spirit Master level cultivators burst through the door, Jiang Ye's shadow had already formed a ring-shaped defensive array on the ground, its platinum edges ionizing the spiritual energy particles in the air into pale purple smoke.

"Would you like to see the instruction manual or a hands-on demonstration?" Ye Shuli placed the petri dish into the analyzer, and the holographic screen immediately projected a three-dimensional molecular model. "The essence of void energy is the quantum entanglement of dark matter and spiritual energy, and I happen to know how to keep them in a Schrödinger state."

A sneer came from among the provocateurs: "Playing tricks!"

“Then let’s use an analogy that everyone can understand.” Ye Shuli’s fingertip traced the data graph of the void crystal. “It’s like controlling the furnace temperature when refining pills. As long as the dark matter is at the critical point of both collapse and superposition—” She suddenly dripped Jiang Ye’s blood sample onto the void crystal, and the originally turbulent energy field instantly collapsed into a stable rhombus. “Now it’s a harmless power bank.”

A collective gasp rippled through the crowd.

The female cultivator who had been shouting earlier suddenly summoned her natal magic weapon, but froze the moment she touched the rhombus-shaped crystal—her glass lamp had begun to absorb the crystal's energy on its own.

Jiang Ye whistled at the opportune moment: "Sister, would you like to buy out the patent first?"

"It's nothing but opportunistic tricks." The gray-robed elder tossed out a detection talisman. "The true powerhouses..."

The talisman suddenly burst into flames, turning into blue smoke.

Ye Shuli raised the analyzer screen, where the modern spectral analysis graph was resonating with the ancient runes: "It was detected that 17.3% of the spiritual energy in your body is in a metastable state. It is recommended that you stop taking the Blazing Sun Pill and switch to water-based cultivation techniques to regulate it. Of course, you can continue to be stubborn."

Amidst the laughter, Jiang Ye's shadow quietly wrapped around Ye Shuli's ankle.

As the last challenger slammed the door and left, he suddenly staggered and grabbed the lab table, large patches of platinum-gold sweat stains spreading across the back of his tactical uniform.

Ye Shuli grabbed his wrist to take his pulse, and her pupils suddenly contracted—in the originally stable network of meridians, a ball of energy was rushing along the Ren meridian toward the heart.

“Your shadow is giving a warning.” Jiang Ye pulled open his collar, revealing dark lines beneath his collarbone. “Remember the charred marks we saw in the void rift? Those vegetation carbonized by the high temperature…”

The jade pendant suddenly emitted a blinding red light.

All coordinates on the holographic map disappeared, except for the building where they were currently located, which was marked as a jumping skull icon.

Ye Shuli grabbed the analyzer and rushed to the window. The outline of the distant mountains was distorted into a familiar jagged shape under the setting sun—completely overlapping with the phantom of car lights she had seen before she traveled through time.

“It’s not a spacetime rift.” Jiang Ye’s shadow spelled out distorted characters on the ground. “Someone is using our time travel coordinates to conduct a targeted blasting experiment.”

The safe house suddenly shook violently.

When the smoke cleared, the remaining Void Crystals on their equipment bags had all turned into charred carbonized matter, emitting the same pungent smell as the stormy night.

At this moment, Ye Shuli's jade pendant projected a new coordinate, and the location point clearly showed the range covered by Jiang Ye's shadow.

"Looks like we'll have to activate Plan B ahead of schedule." Jiang Ye wiped away the blood from his nose; as the platinum-gold blood droplet fell to the ground, it corroded into a miniature black hole-like vortex. "Guess what those old fogies' expressions will be when they find out the safe zone has become a demolition test site?"

Ye Shuli injected the last two inhibitors into his artery: "Let's deal with the void isotopes in your blood first."

As dusk fell completely, the community's bulletin board suddenly started playing an energy turbulence alarm.

Meanwhile, in the basement that the two had temporarily reinforced, Jiang Ye's shadow was transforming the entire wall into a dynamic star map, with the location of a specially marked star system overlapping with the new coordinates on their jade pendant.

The alarm was still blaring in my ears when Jiang Ye's shadow suddenly vanished from the star map.

Dense spiritual energy fluctuations emanated from the basement ceiling, and seventeen jade slips engraved with explosive runes pierced through the reinforced barrier, forming a killing array above the two people's heads.

“They intercepted the analyzer data.” Ye Shuli stared at the pulsating spiritual energy ripples on the holographic screen, modern data streams and ancient incantations overlapping in her pupils. “The third quadrant frequency matches the fluctuations in your blood—someone wants a live sample.”

Suddenly, the dark patterns under Jiang Ye's tactical uniform burst out with purple light, and his shadow split into six defensive arrays on the ground.

The cultivators who broke in were carrying improved versions of the Immortal Binding Ropes. The silver chains wrapped with electric currents actually carried a spiritual energy shielding device developed by Ye Shuli.

"Hand over the source of the void contamination!" The scarred-face leader tossed out the test report; in the holographic projection, Jiang Ye's blood molecular structure was mutating. "The settlement doesn't need something that could explode at any moment—"

Ye Shuli's reagent bottle exploded near the speaker's ear.

Amidst the smoke created by a mixture of modern chemical agents and void crystal powder, she dragged Jiang Ye onto the ventilation duct.

The pursuer's roar was distorted into a strange tone by the metal pipe, and the dark pattern under Jiang Ye's collarbone suddenly extended into a branching diagram, precisely marking the coordinates of each ambush point.

"They've set up a trap in area B3." Jiang Ye's nosebleed dripped onto his tactical glove, etching scorch marks into small dots. "The southeast corner's key point has a 0.7-second fluctuation gap."

Ye Shuli ripped off her lab coat and threw it behind her; the nanomaterials instantly absorbed the ice spikes released by the pursuers.

When the thirteenth spiritual energy trap was triggered by modern bulletproof materials, the two finally broke through the encirclement and landed in the gathering square—just as they ran into a net formed by thirty spiritual master-level experts.

The red-clad female cultivator's glass lamp floated above everyone's heads, and the magic artifact, enhanced by void energy, enveloped the entire plaza in a gravity field.

Ye Shuli's jade pendant emitted a piercing alarm, and the holographic map showed that the safe zone marked by Jiang Ye's shadow was rapidly shrinking.

"I'll give you two choices." The gray-robed elder flicked out twenty explosive talismans. "Take your own life, or..."

Ye Shuli suddenly inserted the analyzer into the ground.

The electromagnetic pulse released by the modern equipment collided with the gravitational field, and she raised her left hand amidst the exploding sparks—a chemical molecular model from the 21st century and the runes of the cultivation world merged in her palm, while the void crystal shattered into quantum dust at the fingertips of her right hand.

“A third option.” A vortex of pale purple energy formed around her, and the fibers of her lab coat were reforming into defensive armor. “I’ll show you the true application of the void.”

The moment the pursuers unleashed their killing moves, Ye Shuli clasped her hands together.

The quantum entanglement theory of modern physics collided with the spiritual energy circulation laws of the cultivation world. The energy of the explosive talisman was decomposed into harmless light particles, and the current of the Immortal Binding Rope turned into a data stream that backfired on the caster.

The red-clad female cultivator's glass lamp suddenly changed direction, absorbing all thirty attacks into the void rift.

"Impossible!" Scarface stared at his split hand. "How could you control..."

"It's not manipulation, it's balance." Ye Shuli crushed the monitoring artifact at her feet, and a holographic projection displayed a real-time energy map. "While you were still debating the five elements of spiritual energy, I had already calculated the golden ratio of dark matter to matter."

The remaining pursuers tried to form a battle formation, but Jiang Ye's shadow suddenly lunged at the ground, enveloped in platinum blood mist.

The modern air-raid shelter structure and the ancient defensive formation materialized in the blood mist, trapping the last five attackers in the sonic resonance zone.

A red warning suddenly popped up on the community's bulletin board, indicating that all attack activities had been recorded in their entirety.

“Move it again,” Ye Shuli said, holding up the analyzer, “and the evidence of your illegal use of my patented technology will be sent to the Inspection Department.”

Suddenly, the crisp sound of a glass lamp falling to the ground rang out in the dead silence.

The female cultivator in red staggered backward, her natal magic weapon covered in cracks—the killing move she had just absorbed had been transformed into pure spiritual energy, which was being fed back to the protective shield of the gathering place through the channeling array set up by Ye Shuli.

Jiang Ye wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, revealing skin with flowing purple-gold patterns through the tear in his tactical uniform: "I suggest you all go to the hospital and see a doctor for radiation exposure; after all, you've been spying on us for three days."

As the last hostile pressure receded from the square, Ye Shuli suddenly supported Jiang Ye, who was coughing violently.

Platinum-gold blood droplets splattered on the analyzer screen, displaying data on the meridian damage caused by her forced fusion of energy.

Jiang Ye's shadow immediately brought the emergency medicine, but it suddenly froze when it touched her wrist—a pattern that perfectly matched the coordinates of the star map appeared at the point where their skin touched.

"Your body temperature is off." Jiang Ye pricked his fingertip with his tactical dagger, his platinum-gold blood drawing a simple detection array on the void crystal fragment. "The energy backlash has formed a closed loop in the twelve meridians."

Ye Shuli pressed down on his bleeding hand, and modern medical knowledge automatically generated a treatment plan in her mind: "It requires the use of the icy pool water..."

The dome of the settlement was suddenly torn apart by a bright light.

The strange light that had appeared in the void rift pierced through the protective shield and enveloped the two of them.

The skull icon on the holographic map flashed wildly, eventually settling into a pulsating nebula pattern—perfectly overlapping with a dark spot on the star map they saw in the basement.

Jiang Ye's shadow suddenly unfolded into a star map, with platinum-gold patterns pointing towards the northern horizon.

Ye Shuli's jade pendant emitted an unprecedented scorching temperature, projecting a three-dimensional coordinate model into her palm—each positioning point precisely corresponding to the spatial coordinates that the Void Organization headquarters had once exposed.

"Looks like some people can't wait to see the results of the experiment." Jiang Ye injected the last two doses of inhibitor into his vein, and the damaged parts of his tactical suit began to repair themselves. "Guess if those old guys at headquarters know they've become a guiding lighthouse?"

Ye Shuli imported the analytical data into the jade pendant, and the navigation beam, a fusion of modern positioning systems and the compass function of the cultivation world, shot straight into the sky: "I'm even more curious about what happened when they discovered that the energy source for the explosion experiment had already been switched..."

The night wind carried the spiritual energy vibrations from afar, and a kind of pressure that transcended the existing level system was brewing near the coordinates.

The gathering place's announcement screen suddenly switched to the highest alert level, but all the flashing red dots were now gathered at the end of the star map, as if lighting a guiding light for travelers.